by Gary L. Miller with Guest, Jed Babbin
Over the next few years, workforce trends will create new management
challenges. For instance, many surveys show that employee engagement levels are
at record lows. Once the job market
begins a solid recovery, these low engagement levels could translate into
turnover. At the same time, record
numbers of older workers will be retiring.
As a result of these trends, the challenge to recruit and retain talent
will intensify. Central to any effective management response will be
considerations for organizational justice.
I’m using the term “organizational justice” to refer to
employees’ perceptions of fair treatment as influenced by, among other things,
a manager’s style. Interestingly, the
Wall Street Journal reported last June that business schools are beginning to “…teach
‘soft skills’ – such as accepting feedback with grace and speaking respectfully
to subordinates – that companies say are most important in molding future
business leaders.”
As one example of how this might pertain to Catholic
colleges and universities, consider the rise in the number of credit hours
taught by adjunct faculty, a general pattern in higher education. Relatively recently, some have asked if these contingent
faculty are being equitably paid. This
question has been felt more acutely at some institutions as adjuncts have
attempted to organize with fairness being the rallying call. At first glance, the contentious issues
appear to center around compensation, but as I have read about these situations,
there seems to be another underlying issue – respect. Could it be that these justice concerns are
fueled by issues independent of actual compensation?
To provide some background on organizational justice and its
significance to many of today’s management challenges, I am being joined in
this column by Jed Babbin. Jed is
currently completing his doctoral dissertation at The Chicago School of
Professional Psychology and developing a managerial training program to teach
soft skills related to organizational justice.
Jed, to launch us
into this discussion, please give us a little background about the origins of
organizational justice as a topic of management research.
While its roots are
grounded in philosophy as well as literature, and most recently law, organizational
justice is a relatively new field of research. Only in the past few decades has
it become a serious topic of research in both psychology and management. The
current empirical research of justice in the workplace can be traced back to John Stacey
Adams’ Equity Theory in
the 70s, which involves an individual’s comparison of effort and rewards with
the effort and rewards of another. This
led to the study of perceptions of distributive justice which
studied outcomes, such as the equitable allocation of rewards such as pay and
bonuses. Distributive justice also covers
consistent and equitable application of punishments for workplace infractions.
From this early research, a number of other drivers of justice perceptions have
been identified.
When I think about
justice, it’s definitely about the outcomes. What are these other drivers and
how might they relate to the adjunct issues that I mentioned above?
Perceptions of justice
have also been shown to be influenced by how employees are treated on a
day-by-day basis. Research performed by Bies & Moag as early as 1986 showed
that the extent to which employees feel they are being told truthful
information and treated with respect clearly affects the degree to which they
report management is “just.” These sorts of perceptions relate to procedural
justice and interactional justice, subcategories of organizational justice. As another example, managers who are rude to
subordinates or lie about knowledge of higher level decisions tend to be seen
as unjust. Such treatment by managers
has been shown to affect employees’ overall feelings of just treatment by the
employer as well as affect their health. Supervisory training can be an
effective way to change behavior and improve outcomes as shown in a study by
Greenberg. In this study of hospitals that implemented pay cuts, he found that nurses
whose managers had training in interactional justice experienced far less
insomnia than those with untrained supervisors.
Perceptions of
injustice can also be affected by a lack of information. An abundant volume of
research shows that it is extremely important to provide people with detailed
information about how reward decisions or potentially negative outcomes are
made. An earlier study by Greenberg found that the
communication used to inform employees of an impending pay cut affected how
many workers resigned and the rate of theft by those who stayed. Some of the research related to this aspect
of organizational justice – informational justice –is cited at the end of this
column. Research has shown that other important drivers of fairness perceptions
include consistency in decision-making and whether or not expressed concerns
are given serious attention.
Jed, does the
research show that these drivers are as significant as outcomes when it comes
to influencing perceptions of just treatment?
Are they as significant as, say, actual pay levels?
Yes. The research
shows that these drivers can be as substantial in influencing perceptions of
organizational fairness as actual outcomes.
Remember that we are talking about perceptions, not necessarily reality. A management decision might be considered
unfair due to a simple failure to adequately communicate all of the important
information. For instance, going back to
Adam’s Equity Theory, a person may compare his or her own effort at the office
to a colleague who moves slower and wonder why she gets more rewards, not
knowing that she often puts in additional hours from home.
I would suspect that
most managers with responsibility for adjuncts, particularly at Catholic colleges
and universities, treat them fairly well.
While I can’t speak
directly to your statement, note that even well-intentioned managers can be
perceived as unfair and disrespectful. Many
people think that managing “fairly” is intuitive; but it’s not. For instance, a
perception of injustice can be derived from a manager failing to consider an
employee’s opinion. This oversight could
likely drive negative perceptions regardless of whether or not the opinion was
acted on.
What makes a high
level of organizational justice a rather difficult goal to achieve on a
widespread basis is that managers almost always tend to view themselves as
fair, even when their subordinates disagree. Many managers who are considered unfair by others
simply lack of an awareness of how their behavior is perceived. Further, they may not recognize the
importance of soft skills they need to develop and often do not realize that
there are best practices in this area. For these reasons, I feel that training managers in some of these skill
sets could be highly effective.
Going back to the
adjunct faculty topic, in many institutions, there has been a steady growth in
the number of adjuncts over the past several years often without the development
of corresponding policies, communications, and management training programs to properly
manage this new employee population.
Could justice issues arise from this type of situation?
Definitely. Merely the
absence of proper and thorough communication of the processes, and of the
outcomes of the processes that are in place to ensure fairness, could result in
perceptions of injustice. Again, research has shown us that it’s the perception
more than the actual outcome that influences employees’ attitudes and their
behavior. That is, attitudes are formed by what employees perceive the
situation to be. Therefore, sufficient
and accurate communication is definitely important to avoid misconceptions. If, however, the underlying processes are
missing, thorough communications can only go so far.
By the way, all of the
items you mentioned – communications, policies, and management training – are
important tools for promoting organizational justice and distinguishing an employer
from competitors while potentially contributing financially.
That being said, as
far as I know, there has as yet not been any research on the relationship
between organizational justice and contingent faculty perceptions of fairness. However, a large volume of other research
shows a relationship between the factors we discussed above and employees’
health and behaviors, such as theft, innovation, absenteeism, and litigation. Some of this
research is cited below. Given the
research findings, it is reasonable to conclude that using the above-mentioned
tools to promote respectful treatment of employees could be effective in higher
education.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics
reports that non-government sector turnover is increasing. Does any of the
research show a connection between turnover and organizational justice?
Yes, multiple studies
have shown this connection between turnover and organizational justice. Most applicable is a hotel chain that found its
hotels where employees had the highest perception of organizational justice had
not only the lowest levels of turnover, but also the highest customer
satisfaction.
Jed, do you have any
other comments, especially as pertains to adjuncts?
For those interested
in learning more I would recommend reading Greenberg’s 2009 article listed
below.
Though I will be
looking to train managers rather than adjuncts, I am looking to test my
training next year. The application of my research is actually to develop a six-
hour training module that would be tailored to the organization and delivered
over two days. It will be for first-line
managers and use a number of practical exercises where participants will practice
using some key ideas from my research. I would not charge for training, but only
require the organization to cover the minimal associated costs.
--------------------------
The title of this column suggests
that organizational justice should be a core competency for Catholic colleges
and universities. In Centesimus annus, the
Blessed Pope John Paul II states that “the purpose of a business firm is not
simply to make a profit, but is found in its very existence as a community of persons who in various ways
are endeavoring to satisfy their basic needs, and who form a particular group
at the service of the whole of society” (35).
While Catholic colleges and universities are not business firms, they
can serve as models for employers of what it means to be a “community of persons” working together
“at the service of the whole of society.”
To the extent that organizational justice research can point to
practical ways to increase management effectiveness as well as perceptions of
fairness and community cohesion, it deserves serious consideration. Additionally,
the research findings suggesting a relationship between organizational justice
measures and employee health suggest that there are also considerations for colleges
and universities that are implementing wellness programs.
The opinions expressed in this column are ours alone and do
not represent the opinions of DePaul University or the Chicago School of
Professional Psychology.
References
Bies, R. J., & Moag, J. S. (1986). Interactional
justice: Communication criteria of fairness. In R. J. Lewicki, B. H. Sheppard,
& M. Bazerman (Eds.), Research on negotiation in organizations (pp.
43-55). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
Colquitt, J. A., Conlon, D. E., Wesson, M. J., Porter, C.
O. L. H., & Ng, K. Y. (2001). Justice at the millenium: A meta-analytic
review of 25 years of organizational justice research. Journal of Applied
Psychology, 86(3), 425-445. doi:10.1037/0021-9010.86.3.425
Greenberg, J. (1990). Employee theft as a reaction to
underpayment inequity: The hidden cost of pay cuts. Journal of Applied
Psychology, 75(5), 561-568. doi:10.1037/0021-9010.75.5.561
John Paul II.
(1991). Centesimus annus: To His
Venerable Brothers in the Episcopate the Priests and Deacons Families of Men
and Women religious all the Christian Faithful and to all men and women of good
will on the hundredth anniversary of Rerum Novarum 1991.05.01.
Retrieved from Vatican: The Holy See website: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_01051991_centesimus-annus_en.html
Greenberg, J. (2009). Everybody talks about
organizational justice, but nobody does anything about it. Industrial And Organizational Psychology: Perspectives On Science And
Practice, 2(2), 181-195.
doi:10.1111/j.1754-9434.2009.01131.x
Korn, M., and Light, J.
(2011, June 7). On the lesson
plan: Feelings. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved
from http://www.wsj.com
Simons, T., & Roberson, Q. (2003). Why managers
should care about fairness: The effects of aggregate justice perceptions on
organizational outcomes. Journal of
Applied Psychology, 88(3),
432-443. doi:10.1037/0021-9010.88.3.432
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March 20, 2012